Babe Ruth heralded in the live-ball era of baseball with profound power and grand home runs and, as such, is widely regarded as one baseball’s greatest hitters. He was an indispensable part of baseball’s growth and was both a reliable pitcher and an intimidating hitter.
After his upsetting trade from Boston to New York, Boston suffered a distressing dry spell of 86-years in the World Series championship, while New York dominated baseball for years. Babe was one of the original members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and retired with an extraordinary 714 home runs.
Lew Alcindor Makes His Mark on UCLA
Before we knew Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Kareem, he was Lew Alcindor of the UCLA Bruins; he altered his name before his senior season. During his time playing on the varsity squad for UCLA, Lew Alcindor went on the win three National Championships, was also a three-time All-American and was named the NCAA Most Outstanding Player three times.
In a short period of three years, Alcindor and the dominant Bruins lost only two games, bringing their remarkable record over that time period to 88-2. Lew Alcindor was drafted first overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969. He resigned from basketball, a six-time champion, and the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
Larry Feels the Magic
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson played for two of the NBA's biggest rivals, the Celtics and Lakers, even though they were legendary rivals on the court, they were great friends off it. They level-off each other three times in the NBA finals, with the Lakers winning twice.
Their rivalry really began in 1979 at the NCAA Championship game, with Magic's Michigan State Spartans beating Bird's Indiana State Sycamores 75-64, with this game being a hint of things to come. Michigan State would become of the NCAA's most dominant teams and Indiana State fading into relative oblivion.
Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics
Although the Olympics are meant to be an apolitical event, it seems they hardly ever are. The Berlin Olympics in 1936 was supposed to be Adolph Hitler's way of broadcasting to the world that Germany was superior, expecting the podium to be full of Aryan-looking Germans.
But American sprinter Jesse Owens proved everyone otherwise. Jesse won four gold medals during the games while breaking multiple world records. More importantly, he stood up to Hitler and succeeded in what we can only imagine being a hostile and hateful environment.
Johnny Unitas Making History
The winning quarterback and three-time NFL Champion of the so-called "Greatest Game Ever Played" - also known as the 1958 title game and the first sudden-death game in NFL history - Johnny Unitas popularized the quarterback position. Unitas was drafted out of Louisville in 1955 and had a prolific career defeating the Baltimore Colts.
His record of consecutive games with a passing touchdown stood for a remarkable 52 years when Drew Brees finally broke it in 2012. Back in 1979, he was soon elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and retired a three-time NFL Champion and 10-time Pro-Bowler.